Posts Tagged "Jacob Wetterling"
Was Jacob’s abduction “a perfect storm?”
I have a few more thoughts about the Jacob Wetterling case. After this, I’m hoping to move on to a new mystery – a happy one with a happy ending. Does such a thing exist? I don’t know, but I’m keeping my eyes open. Surely there must be a happy mystery that exists somewhere. If you know of such a thing, let me know.
(New here? Start from the beginning…)
Several people have wondered what the weather was like the night Jacob was abducted. I wondered the same thing, so on the day I drove through St. Joseph a few weeks ago, I made a stop at the St. Cloud Library on my way home. I wanted to check the microfilm for the St. Cloud Times on the day after Jacob was abducted (October 23, 1989) to see if I could find any information that hadn’t been included in recent news reports. Click here to read the article.
As for the weather… here’s the skinny. After making a copy of the October 23, 1989 newspaper article from the St. Cloud Times, I rolled back the microfilm to one day earlier so I could look at the weather report from October 22, the actual day Jacob was abducted. It had been a clear, beautiful day for late October, with a high near 70 degrees. The evening sky was clear with a waning moon in its third quarter. That means it was a half moon; the full moon had been one week prior.
That being said, the question rolling around in my head was… even though the boys said they never saw a car, could a car have been parked in the Rassiers’ driveway a little further down, so the boys couldn’t see it in the dark?
In 2003, the investigators discounted the “getaway car” theory when a local resident came forward to admit the tire tracks found by police in the Rassier’s driveway that night were most likely his. But why were authorities so quick to discount this theory and instead, focus on the “local-resident-who-escaped-on-foot theory?” Was it because it was Dan Rassier, himself, who’d been the one to tell police he’d seen a car turn around in his driveway that night, and then speed away at about the same time Jacob was abducted.
If Rassier witnessed the car from inside his house, that must mean the car pulled all the way into his property to turn around. That’s because you can’t see the end of the driveway from the house; it’s hidden by trees/woods. If I understand it correctly, the local resident (Kevin) who inadvertently left his tire tracks in the driveway that night, told Trish Van Pilsum from FOX 9 News that he had simply pulled in, backed up, and driven away. Wouldn’t that mean he didn’t go all the way into the property? So, if Rassier is telling the truth, doesn’t that mean there had to be another car that night… someone besides Kevin? (If you didn’t see Trish Van Pilsum’s interview, read my previous post).
I re-visited this “getaway-car-parked-in-the-Rassier-driveway theory” one more time. Even though Aaron and Trevor said they didn’t see a car that night, could there have been one parked halfway up the driveway, away from the road so the boys couldn’t see it, yet before the curve, where Rassier would have seen it from the house? Could someone have been parked in the Rassiers’ driveway that night, waiting for the boys to return from the Tom Thumb? Was it so dark that night that the boys wouldn’t have seen a car in the driveway?
At first, I thought no way. You’d think a half moon would be pretty bright. Surely if a car had been parked on that driveway, only 20 yards away, at least one of the boys would have seen it. Right? But, here’s something I learned about a third quarter moon. It rises at midnight and sets at noon the following day. That means, at 9:15pm, when Jacob was abducted, there was no moonlight at all. The moon hadn’t even risen yet, so the sky was completely dark.
So… was it a stalker-stranger who abducted Jacob and escaped in a getaway car that he’d stashed in the Rassiers’ driveway? To me, this scenario seems highly unlikely since all the elements of the abduction would have had to have fallen together perfectly. The boys had never been allowed to go to the Tom Thumb after dark before. If a stranger had been stalking Jacob at his hockey tryouts earlier that day, and/or skulking around at the Tom Thumb earlier that afternoon, what are the chances he’d be so lucky that Jacob would come strolling along, out for the first time after dark, on a moonless night, when his parents just happened to be away at a dinner party? A perfect storm? I doubt it.
The person who abducted Jacob KNEW he’d be returning down that dark road within 30 minutes or so. He knew the Tom Thumb plan. It seems that a stalker-stranger who just happened-upon three young boys out after dark would strike while the iron was hot, like in the Cold Spring case. After all, without knowing the boys, or where they were heading, wouldn’t the stalker-stranger logically assume they were just on a one way trip… either back home or to a friend’s house?
However, this person KNEW the boys would be making a return trip to the Wetterling home. He knew where the Wetterling home was, and he waited for their return. If it was someone who saw them at the Tom Thumb picking out a movie, that person had to have known who they were, where they lived, and where they were heading. If he was driving, he would have had to hurry to get ahead of them, stash his car, pull a mask over his head, and position himself in the ditch, all without being seen.
Or, it had to be someone who knew the boys were on their way to the Tom Thumb and knew they’d be returning down that dark road in about a half hour. He knew they’d be RETURNING soon… that they weren’t just on a one-way trip to another friend’s house. Could that person have been outside on that warm, quiet October night and overheard the boys talking on their way to the Tom Thumb?
As you recall, Aaron (Jacob’s friend) was on a scooter, so they had to have been going pretty slowly. Was someone spying on them, listening to their every word? Didn’t Aaron report that he thought he’d heard rustling in the tall grass, halfway to the Tom Thumb? Read Aaron’s story here…
We know for sure there was another boy, Jared, just one year older than Jacob, who was abducted, molested, and released by a stalker-stranger in Cold Spring… just 10 miles away and 10 months prior. That man was never found, and the similarities between the two cases are striking (i.e., Jared was abducted coming home from hockey practice; Jacob was at hockey tryouts earlier that day; the man was concerned about being recognized in both cases; he had a gun and a low gravely voice; and, in both instances, he told the boys, “Run and don’t turn around, or I’ll shoot.”). These facts are hard to deny. Sure sounds like it could be the same guy.
However, they sure have put the heat on Dan Rassier lately, and God help him if he had nothing to do with the case. Yes, his actions on the night of the abduction seem a little weird. But then, why in the world didn’t the police officers search his house or interview him that first night? Also weird.
And really… could a guy like Dan Rassier, an educated man with a Master’s degree and a TEACHER for heaven’s sake, actually do something like this? For 21 years, he’s lived his life under a microscope. If he was guilty of child molestation/abduction, wouldn’t they have found some nasty files on his computer or some kiddie porn in his bedroom? They’ve searched his house three times now… chances are they would have found something incriminating by now. Right?
Confounding. Frustrating. Agonizing!
Let me just end by saying this…
Peace to the Wetterlings, and peace to you, Jacob. If there was something… ANYTHING… more I could do for you, I would. But unfortunately, all the “Minnesota Nice” hotdishes in the world are not going to bring you home. Only two people know what really happened that October night 21 years ago – you and your abductor. Of the two, only one has the power to end our misery.
So… here’s one last word for you, Mr. Gravely Voice. If you’re still out there, know that it’s never too late to do the right thing. It’s never too late to ask for forgiveness, and it’s never too late to be forgiven. Please, do the right thing. Please, give us back our Jacob.
In the meantime, I’ll keep praying and “thinking Jacob.”
Read MoreA few questions answered, but more to ponder…
I was just alerted to this Channel 9 interview between Dan Rassier and Trish Van Pilsum. It was done in 2004, before Dan Rassier’s name was made available to the public. In the interview, his face is blurred-out and, I assume, his voice is disguised. It sure sounds low and gravely here. (Media spin, perhaps.)
We also hear from the witness who arrived first on the scene and inadvertently left his tire tracks when he turned around in the Rassier’s driveway.
All told, this investigation sounds like it was a bumbled mess from the beginning. So sad. Poor Jacob.
Transcript
It’s been nearly 15 years since Jacob Wetterling vanished near his St. Joseph home.
And he’s the man who says he has recently become a “suspect” in the Wetterling Investigation.
Stearns County authorities don’t use the word. That’s because of gaps early in the investigation. They haven’t been able to link him to the crime or rule the man out.
Trish Van Pilsum: “Did you have anything to do with Jacob’s disappearance?”
The Man: “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
FOX 9 won’t identify this man because he hasn’t been arrested or charged. He lives near the abduction site. He was home alone on October 22, 1989. There is no one to confirm his whereabouts. Police questioned him the day after the abduction, more as a witness than a possible suspect.
The Man: “They needed to check me out. They said they had to check me out.”
They searched his car at work but not until later in the day.
The Man: “That morning when I left, I had a car full of …”
Trish Van Pilsum: “Boxes. Big boxes.”
The Man: “… and they never looked in my car. I mean it was that bad.”
They searched his property, too. But not until five days later.
The Man: “They didn’t come in the house that night. It could have been over with.”
Investigators, new to the case, agree important things were overlooked in the early days of the search. That there were just too many people and too many agencies involved.
More than 14 years passed. Why the renewed interest in this man now? The FOX 9 Investigators have learned that investigators now doubt one of the main theories of Jacob Wetterling’s disappearance. That theory: While Jacob, his brother, and a friend walked their bikes and scooter home from a convenience store, somebody got out of a car, grabbed Jacob, and fled in his car.
Stearns County investigators are steering away from the car, leaving their suspect on foot, and local. That fits with what the other boys said.
This is a copy of a statement Jacob’s best friend Aaron gave police.
[Investigator:] “Was there any vehicles or anything around at this point that you observed?” [Aaron Larson:] “Uh uh. Not that we could see.”
How did the car come into play? Remember the witness turned possible suspect? It was his account that placed a car at the scene that night. He said it turned around and sped away about the time Jacob disappeared.
The FOX 9 Investigators also have learned there was a car nearby that night. We found the driver. He is not a suspect.
Kevin: “It’s sad. It chokes me up. But what can I do. What could I have done.”
He’s a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kevin: “I never came forward. I figured I didn’t have to.”
Kevin was 21 at the time. He heard something on the scanner. Saw a police car speed by his house. Curious, he tried to follow the squad. He was there so fast there was no police crime scene tape around the bikes and scooter yet. He drove away and told a police officer what he’d seen.
Kevin: “He said, yeh we know all about that. I know about the bikes. And that was it. It was like I was bothering him. We backed out and left and that was it.”
Trish Van Pilsum: “He didn’t take your name or phone number.”
Kevin: “He didn’t take my name.”
Trish Van Pilsum: “He didn’t ask, did you see a man lurking around?”
Kevin: “Didn’t ask me a thing.”
Nor, it appears, did the officer pass along his conversation with Kevin to investigators. It strikes the new investigators now working on the case 14 years later as strange. It also strikes them as a huge problem. In fact, investigators didn’t know about Kevin at all until this October [2003]. This came about because he met a federal marshal at a party who urged Kevin to talk to the lead investigator of the Wetterling investigation.
Kevin: “He was really shocked. ‘Cause after I told him who I talked to, what I seen, he couldn’t believe he didn’t know about me. In reality, I could have been the kidnapper and they never would have found me.”
In fact, of the thousands and thousands of pages of leads, none places Kevin at the scene around the time of the kidnapping. A source close to the case said they wasted 14 years looking for him.
Trish Van Pilsum: “Kevin, do you think, ‘Boy if my information didn’t get passed along, what else was missed?’”
Kevin: “Yes. Who else knows something about the case they might not think was crucial.”
Kevin even heard the police were trying to track down the car using tire tracks.
Kevin: “I was scared. I got really scared.”
Kevin expected police to come to him. They never did.
Trish Van Pilsum: “So if they couldn’t find you, what were the odds that they could find the kidnapper.”
Kevin: “Exactly. I think about that all the time. It’s sad. A young kid like that you know, 14 years.”
Why didn’t he go to the police? He figured he’d gotten to the scene after everything was over. He doubted he had anything to add. And he didn’t want to get caught up in the widening net of the Wetterling search.
Kevin: “I knew they were looking for someone and I didn’t want to be put in the position of being a suspect.”
Now investigators believe the car is accounted for. The investigation narrows to a small area surrounding the abduction scene. And, specifically on one man. One of Jacob Wetterling’s neighbors.
The Man: “I’m not worried. I’m thinking they’re going to figure out I couldn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to do something like that.”
Investigators questioned him as recently as two weeks ago, February 7th [2004]. They took a sample of his DNA. Five days later they questioned his family and searched his computer files at home.
The Man: “I just have to hope they make sense out of it and not wreck my life.”
Remember he is the witness who placed a car at the scene. Later that night he heard a commotion. It was the search and it was in his yard. He went back to bed.
Trish Van Pilsum: “Why would you go to bed when a kid had just disappeared?”
The Man: “I wanted to get some sleep. I wasn’t going to waste my time.”
The man FOX 9 talked with may never be connected with the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping case.
Read MoreLet the questions begin…
If you’re like me, you probably have a ton of questions swirling around in your head after reading my last post about the Jacob Wetterling abduction that took place on October 22, 1989.
I’m going to try and list my questions here in some sort of coherent fashion. Hopefully they’ll follow some semblance of order. If not, bear with me; I’m a journalism major, not a private investigator.
The Babysitter?
First of all, the boys’ decision to rent a video that Sunday evening was spontaneous and impulsive. The only people who knew they were planning on going to the Tom Thumb that night were Jerry and Patty Wetterling (Jacob and Trevor’s parents, who were at a dinner party in Clearwater 45 minutes away), the 13 year old neighbor/babysitter who offered to come babysit the youngest Wetterling daughter while the boys were gone, and, presumably, the babysitter’s family. I wondered if someone in the babysitter’s family could possibly have stalked the boys on their way home, but no. The dad is the one who called 911 (from his home) when his daughter called in a panic to tell him what had happened. The family also had a son, but he was only 17 at the time. Highly unlikely.
That means whoever took Jacob did it impulsively, acting quickly when they saw the opportunity.
The Scary Guy at the Tom Thumb?
There’s a theory that someone at the Tom Thumb saw the boys and stalked them on their way home. Reports from eyewitnesses say there was a strange man at the Tom Thumb earlier that day who walked in and glared at customers, then left without making a purchase. He was a large, older, bald man with a raspy voice. You’ve seen him before; we all have. That’s because he’s the one from the first sketch that was sent to the media. This same man was reported to have been seen at another area convenience store as well. He was never identified, never found.
So, let’s entertain this thought for a bit. Could it be that this scary bald man was skulking around St. Joseph that day, looking for an 11 year old boy to abduct? OK, let’s just assume that could be true. He didn’t know Jacob; he didn’t know his family, and he didn’t know where he lived. That means, the stalker would have had to follow the boys out of the Tom Thumb in order to figure out which direction they were heading. Not only that, he would have had to quickly get ahead of them, change into all-black attire, put a mask over his head, hide his car, and get positioned in the ditch… all without being seen.
Impossible. Having now driven down that road myself, there’s no way the boys would have missed seeing a car coming down the road. No way. It’s a dead end road in a small town. When neighbors drive by, they wave. When non-neighbors drive by, you notice. If a strange car had passed them, then pulled into Rassier’s driveway, they would have noticed.
A Neighborhood Stalker?
That leaves us with the possibility that whoever did this saw the boys on their way TO the Tom Thumb, then made preparations to abduct them on their way back home. Whoever that person was had to know the boys, be familiar with the Rassier property, and have quick access to dark clothing, a face mask, and a gun. If they planned on using a getaway car, they would have had to take the time to stash it somewhere north of the dead end street where they could access Highway 75 and make a fast getaway.
A Getaway Car?
The only place I could figure to stash a car was either in the neighborhood behind the Rassier farm (to the north), or on the Rassier property itself (see satellite map of abduction site). However, the houses to the north of the Rassier farm look pretty new… early 90s perhaps, so I’m not even sure that neighborhood existed in 1989. And as for the theory of stashing a car on the Rassier property and then escaping on some back field road… it’s hard to believe investigators couldn’t have followed those tire tracks pretty easily. Plus, whoever was doing the “stashing” had to be pretty confident the farm family wouldn’t be home at the time.
In 2003, investigators discounted the theory of a getaway car after a local resident came forward to explain he had arrived early on the scene the night of the abduction, after hearing the call on his police scanner. He admitted the tire tracks found on the scene were most likely his. His story checked out. This led officers to believe the suspect probably escaped with Jacob on foot.
The “Person of Interest”?
Now, onto this “person of interest” named in the case last summer… Dan Rassier. Rassier is the 55 year old single son of Robert and Rita Rassier, owners of the farm property where Jacob was abducted. (If you didn’t see Rassier’s interview with KARE-11′s Julie Nelson last summer, view my last post.) Rassier is a band teacher at Rocori Middle School in Cold Spring and lives at the family farm with his parents. He is also an avid runner.
First of all, in Rassier’s defense, he does not have a low, gravely voice. In fact, if you watched the video interview, you’ll notice Rassier has a very distinct speech pattern. Considering the close proximity in which Trevor and Aaron were to their abductor, it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have picked up on that. That was my first thought.
In newspaper reports, Rassier also admits to undergoing DNA testing, a lie detector test, and even hypnosis to help the investigation. And while we don’t know the results of these tests, you must admit, that’s pretty forthcoming for someone considered a “person of interest” in this case. To date, Rassier has never retained a lawyer either.
However, like many others, I do question Rassier’s actions on the night of the abduction. First of all, he admits to having no alibi and no witnesses. His parents happened to be on vacation in Europe the night of Jacob’s abduction, so Rassier was home by himself. In his TV interview with KARE-11′s Julie Nelson, Rassier said he went for a run the day Jacob was abducted. He remembers it being “a splendid day for running.” When he wasn’t running, he says he spent the remainder of the day typing index cards he used to organize his record collection. He went to bed early and was awakened by the sound of the dog barking outside. He looked out the window and saw people with flashlights out by the wood pile. He thought they were intruders and called 911.
OK, lots of questions here.
First of all, he awoke to the sound of the dog barking? How about the sounds of sirens wailing? I live in a town the size of St. Joseph, and when you hear a siren in a small town, any siren, you take notice. That’s because you just naturally assume you know the person who’s in trouble on the other end. Your heart leaps; and you pray to God it’s not someone you know, someone you love. However, on the night of Jacob’s abduction, there had to be SEVERAL sirens, all stopping right at the end of Rassier’s driveway. And yet, he was awakened by the sound of the dog barking?
However, maybe there were no sirens. What do I know.
But here’s what we DO know. Jacob was abducted at 9:15pm. The sheriff was the first to arrive on the scene six minutes later. He immediately called for reinforcements. By 10pm, the Rassier property had to be in full-blown chaos. My question is… what in the heck time did Rassier go to bed? I’m all for getting a good night’s sleep, but 9:15pm seems a little early… especially for a 33 year old whose parents are gone on vacation.
According to Rassier, the 911 operator told him a child had been abducted near his property and law enforcement officers were combing the area looking for him. Rassier says he got up and searched all the outbuildings on his property with a flashlight. Hard to believe a police officer didn’t notice him during this time, giving him that much-needed alibi.
And hey… what about those police officers? Didn’t they knock on Rassier’s door and question him as an eyewitness? Wouldn’t that be the first thing you did, considering Rasser’s was the closest home to the crime scene? Didn’t they ask for his help in the search? Did they knock and receive no answer? Did anyone get a warrant to search his house that very night? These seem to be obvious details I couldn’t find in any news report.
And where was Rassier the next day? And the day after that? Did he have an alibi on those days? How about the next week? The next month? If Rassier had Jacob, wouldn’t he need to be attending to him somehow?
To me, it seems highly unlikely that anyone could be so brazen as to abduct a child right outside their own home. However, *someone* was waiting for Jacob outside the Rassier driveway that night. If it wasn’t Dan Rassier with the low, gravely voice… who else would have been on the farm property that night? Who else would have seen the boys heading toward Tom Thumb, then have the ability to quickly get the supplies they needed, possibly stash a getaway car somewhere, and wait for their return? If it was a stalker-stranger, how did they know how/where to escape so quickly? Could it have been a farm hand? Another Rassier family member? A close neighbor?
Please add your own comments and questions below. Maybe all our thoughts and prayers can help somehow. Surely it can’t hurt to keep “thinking Jacob.”
Oh, and one more thing. Happy Birthday to Patty Wetterling… it was her birthday yesterday.
Read MoreA trip through St. Joseph
When, where, how… why?
As I mentioned in my last post, “Thinking Jacob”, I haven’t been able to get Jacob Wetterling off my mind lately. He’s the 11 year old boy who was abducted from the small town of St. Joseph, Minnesota on October 22, 1989. Last July, investigators from the F.B.I. and Bureau of Criminal Apprehension arrived at the home/farmstead of Robert and Rita Rassier with a search warrant. For several days, they searched the farm and hauled away truckload after truckload of dirt and ash they’d collected from the home’s burn pile.
Could it be? After all these years, Jacob Wetterling had been less than two blocks from his family home all long? Could it possibly be that simple?
Here’s the story. Robert and Rita Rassier were on a European vacation at the time of Jacob’s disappearance. However, their son Daniel, who was 34 at the time, also lived with them at their house. He was introduced to us as a “Person of Interest” in the Jacob Wetterling case during the search of the Rassier family farm. We’d never heard of Dan Rassier before this.
Julie Nelson from KARE-11 News in Minneapolis did a two part interview with Dan Rassier. Click the play button below to see the video in its entirety.
Dan Rassier Interview, Part 1
Dan Rassier Interview, Part 2
After watching these interviews, I found myself wanting to know where this farm was, where Jacob lived, and where the Tom Thumb was.
I found both addresses very easily on WhitePages.com. I also did a search to figure out where the Tom Thumb had been in St. Joseph.
So, here’s a map put together by the St. Cloud Times newspaper that shows where each of these places is, in relation to each other, along with a general account of the events that took place that evening:
As you can see, the abduction took place right at the driveway of the Rassier home/farmstead. However, what this map doesn’t show you are the woods that secluded the home from the road, or the long driveway that leads back to the house. In reality, you cannot see the house from the road at all. And it’s at this spot in the road, where there are heavy woods on either side, that the abduction took place.
This aerial photo from Google Earth shows the area a bit better:
On the day I drove to St. Joseph, I knew the Wetterling’s address, so I used that to make myself a map, then I hit the road. At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure where the Tom Thumb was, but, I figured I’d cross that road when I came to it.
I came into town on County Road 2, entering from the west. The College of St. Ben’s was on my right… wow, what a beautiful campus. I’d never seen it before. Google told me to stay on County Road 2 onto East Minnesota Street, then to hang a right onto 16th Ave. SE. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the spot of the former Tom Thumb.
Once I was on 16th Avenue, I knew I was on “the road.” This was the exact route Jacob had taken 21 years ago, almost to the day, when he was abducted at gunpoint. I drove slowly, snapping photos out the windshield as I went.
16th Avenue SE, heading south
(At this point, you may be asking yourself why I didn’t bother to just get out of the car and take some decent photos. As you recall, I was there last Saturday, October 23. Jacob was abducted on October 22. I figured neighbors and townspeople would already be a little on edge since it was so close to the date of the abduction, so I didn’t want to alarm anyone. As it was, I was already feeling a little creepy and stalker-ish.)
As I neared the edge of town, the new blacktop ended and so did the city street lights. I figured I must be getting close.
End of city streetlights and new blacktop
I drove slowly, imagining myself to be 11 years old, on a bike and approaching this spot when the city lights ended and a long dark stretch of road loomed ahead. But, they were so close to home at that point, it was probably no big deal at all. Only two more blocks. That’s it. Two more blocks, and they’d be home.
And then, as they neared the driveway to the Rassier home, they saw a gunman dressed in black and wearing a face mask appear out of the ditch and tell them to stop. It was right here. At this point in the road. That’s the Rassier’s driveway on the left.
Rassier driveway on the left
The boys were told to put their bikes in the ditch and lay face down, right here, on my right. When the gunman let Trevor (Jacob’s brother) and his friend Aaron go, he told them to run toward those trees in the background and not to look back or he’d shoot.
Site of abduction
About two more blocks, the road ended and turned right. Two small cul-de-sacs were on my left; the Wetterlings lived on the second one. I saw some kids playing in one of the yards, so I didn’t go down the road for fear of creeping anyone out.
I turned around and drove back toward town, this time in search of a convenience store that was within a mile of the house. Thinking like a mother, I figured it had to be in a location close by that didn’t require the kids to have crossed any major roads. I drove back down 16th Ave SE, and after a few twists and turns, ended up at a Casey’s General Store, at the corner of County Road 75 and 4th Avenue. I’m wasn’t entirely sure this was the former Tom Thumb (it wasn’t), but I filled up with gas and took a few photos.
I hit my trip reset button and took one more trip down 16th Avenue to see if this Casey’s was about a mile from the Wetterling home. (From the news stories, I knew the convenience store was about a mile away.) As I neared the Rassier farm, I passed a police car and wondered if they were now running my license plate. (I get the feeling strangers are eyed with a lot of suspicion in St. Joseph these days, especially around October 22 each year.)
I turned around once again, and headed out of St. Joe, into St. Cloud. I was surprised by how close it was… something else I never realized. I continued on to Barnes and Noble, got my birthday present and a cup of Starbucks, then headed to the library to look up some old articles in the St. Cloud Times.
My head was full of questions… SO many questions… but I’ll save those for next time.
As you can imagine, this has been a hard story to write about, and I’m thankful for everyone who’s followed along with me. It’s not easy to re-live this tragedy, especially if you’re from Minnesota. But, I encourage you to keep “Thinking Jacob”… keep thinking… keep wondering… keep praying. Someday, I hope we can get an answer.
Read MoreThinking Jacob
Maybe, just maybe…
St. Cloud Times, October 23, 1989
*Eye roll*
Yes, here we go once again. I’m sure you’re wondering why I suddenly care about something that happened 21 years ago to a family I know nothing about. And, once again, the answer is I don’t know. I can’t really explain it. All I know is, I can’t stop “thinking Jacob.”
So, I started Googling.
For those who don’t know Jacob’s story, here’s a little background. On the evening of Sunday, October 22, 1989, 11 year old Jacob Wetterling was home with his friend Aaron Larson (also 11), his 10 year old brother Trevor, and his 8 year old sister. His parents had been invited out to a dinner party in Clearwater (about 30 minutes away), and his oldest sister (13) was staying over at a friend’s house.
[Right away I questioned why the kids were allowed to sleep over at a friend's house on a school night, but it turns out they had Monday off, presumably for the state's annual teacher's conference.]
It had been a beautiful fall day, with sunny skies and a high in the upper 60s. Sometime before 9pm, Trevor called his mother to ask if the kids could ride their bikes to the Tom Thumb convenience store (about a mile away) to rent a movie. Patty Wetterling said no; it was past dark and she was concerned about cars not being able to see them. After she hung up, the boys revised their plan and called back, this time asking for their father, Jerry Wetterling. Jacob told his father he would wear an orange reflective vest, Trevor would carry a flashlight, and Aaron would wear a white sweatshirt. They also mentioned that their younger sister didn’t want to go, so they’d asked their 14 year old neighbor to come over and babysit her while they were gone. Jerry thought it was a sound plan. He also knew Jacob had had a tough day at hockey tryouts earlier in the day and could use a lift in his spirts. He relented.
So, off the boys went; two on bicycle, and one on a scooter. They made it to the Tom Thumb, rented the movie Naked Gun, then started on their way home. Around 9:15pm, as they neared a particularly dark stretch of road, a man with dark clothing, a face mask and a hand gun suddenly appeared out of the ditch and told them to stop. He had a low, gravely voice and told Trevor to turn off his flashlight, then told all the boys to throw their bikes in the ditch. Next, he told them to lie face down in the ditch, then turned them over one by one, asking them how old they were. He started with Trevor, Jacob’s younger brother. When Trevor replied that he was 10, the masked man told him to get up, run toward the woods, and not look back or he would shoot. The man did the same with Aaron, Jacob’s friend. He then grabbed Jacob by the elbow and began dragging him away. When Aaron caught up to Trevor, the two boys looked back to see that Jacob and the man had vanished. Neither one had seen a getaway car.
Aaron and Trevor ran the remaining two blocks to the Wetterling home and told the babysitter what had happened. She called her father, and he called 911. He also was the one who called the Wetterlings and told them they needed to come home. They left the dinner party immediately, without even saying goodbye.
Within six minutes of receiving the 911 call, the sheriff was on the scene. He saw the boys’ bikes in the ditch and immediately called for backup, including help from the F.B.I. Throughout the night, officers searched for Jacob with flashlights, and a State Patrol helicopter searched the dense woods with a flood light. No luck. The search was called off at 3am.
The search resumed at 8am the next morning [8am??] and DNR officers used six ATVs to search the abduction site within a two mile radius. Bloodhounds from Minneapolis tracked Jacob’s scent from footprints on a gravel road that ended near some fresh tire tracks. The assumption was that Jacob had been taken away by car, and the focus quickly turned to existing sex offenders. Over 70 investigators were assigned to the case, following up on thousands of leads.
Weeks, months, then years went by. Still, there was no sign of Jacob.
Then, in 2003, a local man came forward to say he’d been listening to his police scanner the night of the abduction, and when he heard the call, he immediately drove to the scene, arriving before most police officers. He admitted to unknowingly driving across the crime scene, leading investigators to believe that the fresh tire tracks appearing in the driveway belonged to his car, and not a getaway car. This changed the entire way the investigators looked at the case. Suddenly, they realized the abductor most likely escaped on foot, making them switch their focus from outside suspects to local ones.
Another promising development came in 2004 when a 27 year old man named Jared (last name withheld) came forward and talked publicly for the first time about his abduction and sexual assault which took place in Cold Spring, a town just 10 miles from St. Joseph. The assault had taken place just 10 months prior to Jacob’s abduction, and the similarities between the two cases were chilling.
Jared was 12 at the time and had been walking home from hockey practice on a January night. A car approached him, and a man with a low, gravely voice stopped to ask Jared for directions. The man pulled Jared into his car, drove him to a remote area, and sexually assaulted him. On the way back to town, the man kept asking Jared if he recognized him. When the boy repeatedly answered no, the man let him out of the car, told him to run and said not to turn around or he would shoot him.
The details are eerily similar, and to this day, investigators are convinced that the two cases are connected. [Odd that we'd never heard of this earlier abduction until 2004...] Read Jared’s full story here.
Next time… a photo tour through St. Joseph gives me the lay of the land.
Read MoreAbout Me
Join me in my sporadic ramblings as I embrace the curious life. Wife of a turkey farmer. Mother of two teenage boys. Avid ponderer. Treasure seeker. Curator of the written word. I enjoy sparking interest in the mundane and uncovering a compelling backstory.
